Review: The Expendables

With the recent success of Super-hero movies, and the rash of CGI and special effect-laden action films over the past decade, the action movie genre has changed more rapidly than almost any other genre. The Expendables is Sylvester Stallone's attempt at creating a throwback to the action films of the 80's, where the stars of the film were not the effects, but the muscle-bound heroes who did their own stunts, carried big guns, and rescued the girl in the end. If you're a kid of the 80's or enjoyed those types of films growing up, then you'll probably enjoy The Expendables too.

The Expendables is pretty ambitious in terms of the concept of bringing in so many action stars from the past (including Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke), action stars of more recent years (Jet Li, Jason Statham), and former athletes turned actors (Terry Crews, Steve Austin, Randy Couture), and making them all fit cohesively as part of one cast. Somehow, Stallone pulls it off, and you feel like every cast member has a defined role and contributes. Even the much hyped cameo featuring Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger pays off in a funny and charming scene. While it would've been nice to see them all actually play significant roles in the same film (or even better all in their prime), but it's still a very cool scene.

The plot of the film is pretty standard fare, and again is a throwback to the days when the bravado & wit of the heroes carried the movie. The good guys (Stallone & co.) need to take out the bad guys (headed Eric Roberts in a familiar role), rescue the girl and save the day. Anyone expecting any kind of deep or meaningful story will be disappointed, but if you're looking for guns, explosions, and humor thrown in, The Expendables has them in bunches. Stallone and Statham carry much of the film and get the most face time, but the other cast members aren't left out of the proceedings, especially in the last third of film when the action picks up to a break-neck pace. The action sequences are all very well done, including the last one in particular, which features some of the most exciting gun and fight sequences seen in recent years.

In the end, The Expendables ends up being what a lot of films often forget to be - which is namely a lot of fun. While I enjoy great CGI or special effects as much as anyone, it's nice to have a reprieve from them once in a while, and enjoy a good ol' fashioned tough guy movie. For anyone looking for the same, or if you're a fan of classic action films in general, The Expendables is worth a shot.

Review: Salt

Salt is the new espionage-thriller starring Angelina Jolie as the title character Evelyn Salt. Salt is a CIA operative who one fateful day, while interrogating a rogue agent, is herself accused of being Russian spy who will attempt to assassinate the Russian president. Salt flees from her CIA colleagues and the FBI agent who wants to question her as she attempts to clear her name and discover the root of the mystery behind her past.

While the premise of Salt starts off very intriguing, it becomes apparent that Salt isn't all that different from espionage films of the recent past, and quickly falls into very familiar territory. A lot of the elements and plot twists that occur have been well covered by previous films in this genre, and Salt doesn't improve on them in any meaningful way. There are also numerous plot holes that undermine the credibility of the story. Some of the scenes just really make you scratch your head because they don't make any sense. The action sequences also border on ridiculous at times, which while not totally uncommon for this type of film, it does decrease the believability of the plot.

The other problem with Salt is that everyone seems to just be going through the motions. For all the hype that Angelina Jolie received for this film, she really doesn't bring anything to it that any other highly paid, A-list actress would have brought. Many of the scenes that are supposed bring about emotion from the viewer just don't pay off, and you never really feel emotionally invested in the characters or care much about their fate. This is especially true about the relationship between Salt and her husband (played by August Diehl), which is mainly displayed through slow and tedious flashbacks that remove the viewer from the story rather than engaging them. Jolie and Diehl don't look comfortable together onscreen as a couple, which makes it hard to believe the impact their relationship is supposed to have on the story.

In their supporting roles, Liev Schreiber and Chiwetel Ejiofor try to bring some life to the film, but their characters aren't that well developed. It isn't until the last third of the movie that the story finally starts to pick up and you get to see some of the plot twist elements play out. Though by that time the viewer hasn't been given much incentive to be invested in the outcome and likely won't care.

Salt isn't a bad film, but it doesn't really stand out either. Compared to Jolie's action-oriented films of the past, Salt really doesn't hold up. While the performances are all tolerable and the action sequences are decent as well, there isn't really anything memorable about the film or that would make you want to see it again. I'd recommend it only if you're a huge Jolie fan or there aren't any better options.

Video: My Painting Process

This is a quick video I made while working on my Pop Princesses digital painting. I didn't want to do a full tutorial, but rather just show the work in different stages of the process. These are all techniques developed over time by practicing & learning from other artists I admire. I'll describe a bit of the process and what takes place in each stage below:

• The first step I do is create a line art sketch using my tablet in Photoshop. Sometimes I'll do the sketch in pencil on paper and then scan it, but this time I decided to do the sketch directly in Photoshop.

• Next I try to think of what the background will look like, because it'll affect the color scheme and lighting. For this portrait I didn't want a real elaborate background because I wanted to showcase the figures, so I decide to do a simple gradiated background with a half-tone pattern.

• After setting up the background, I take the pen tool (using the line art sketch as a guide) to create base color layers using the midtones for skin, underneath the line art on a seperate layer. This way I could hide the line art while I painted, but refer to it later if I needed it. The pen tool lets me create clean shapes for the figures, which is important because they'll serve as the basis for all the painted layers above them.
  


• Once the base color layers are done, I create new layers for each figure and use seperate layers for each body feature (hair, eyes, lips, and any clothes or accessories) on top. This way I can paint each item without worrying about messing up another, and can easily fix/make changes. I also do this for the skin shading and highlights using the clipping mask option, so I can shade without affecting the base layer underneath or painting over the edges.

• Using the clipping mask and selection tool, with my line art as a guide, I select the different areas of the body to render and paint them using a soft airbrush. I start with the shadows and then add the highlights, and afterwards I add texture to the skin using various brushes. I like to add the textures after the highlights on a layer above the skin, because otherwise the texture can get washed out from the brightness of the highlights.

• Once the faces and bodies are rendered, I then do the hair and any accessories next. Again, everything is done on seperate layers, so by the end of the painting I usually end up with close to 100 layers. To keep everything organized, I group all the layers according to each singer and each body part, and color code them for easy recognition.

• After some adjustments to the levels and background, and some fixes made to Rihanna's eyes, the painting is done. This is only one style of painting that I like to use, there are other methods and techniques that I like to experiment with dependent on the subject. This is just one example of how I like to work.

Etc.

Thought I'd start a new blog category just to post random thoughts and such. Still not finished with the design and layout of this blog yet, but will hopefully have it all sorted out soon. I've uploaded some of my school work from the past few months under the art tab, along with some personal projects I've worked on recently, with some more to come. Also, I updated the video section with some of the fan made music videos and trailers that I've worked on in the past.

I also plan to start two other new features for this blog called "Looking Forward" & "Looking Back". Looking Forward will focus on upcoming shows, films, games, etc. that I'm looking forward to in the near future, while Looking Back will take a look back of my favorite things from the past that I'd like to share.

Art: Pop Princesses

I'm usually not that into pop music, but I must admit that after several nights out clubbing with friends last year that these ladies music grew on me. Sometimes it's really nice to just have fun, fast music you can dance and party too. So I felt inspired to do this portrait of Rihanna, Lady Gaga, and Katy Perry, who are the current princesses of pop music. Painting was done in photoshop, and I plan to post a quick video I made of my painting process sometime soon.